Doha: On Friday, the giant slayer Illya Marchenko met his end. He didn’t have a choice, the poor man ran into a wall of steel on the penultimate day of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open.

And as is the case with business end of tournaments the field is squeezed down to the strongest. Here at the $1,283,855 Qatar ATP event the obvious were – Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

Ukrainian Marchenko, who had toppled seeds Jermy Chardy and David Ferrer, en route to the last four ran into an armada of a man – Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals.

Maybe it was the name; ‘Rafa’ that had him in before a superior playing technique pulverized what was left of the rather masculine name ‘Marchenko’. Whatever be the case the result was there for everyone to see. A 3-6, 4-6 defeat at the hands of World No. 5 more than summed up the equation and on this occasion the math was just right.

But Rafa denied the ‘image’ factor coming into play. “Sometimes that may be possible, but definitely not today. I had to fight for the breaks against him.”
Much in keeping with his strategy, Rafa’s onslaught began early in the match.

The first set was a repeat of last night’s encounter against Andrey Kuznetsov. Rafa raced to a 3-0 advantage, steamrolling Marchenko with his unmatched play.
Clearly the Spaniard was in no mood for antics. He merely went by the book and retained the remaining serves and minutes later the set was his – 6-3 it said.
The second set too ran as per the plan. He retained his serves and the first opportunity he got, Nadal capitalised. A break in the fifth game of the second set and it was all over for the Ukrainian, who lost the set 4-6 and in the process the match.

Berdych loses battle of nerves to Djokovic

The second semi-final of the day witnessed World No. 1 Serbian Novak Djokovic taking on third seed Czech Tomas Berdych.
Djokovic seemed to be in a jiffy; after all he would have been awaiting the final showdown with Nadal. But things slipped a bit out of hand, albeit for a few minutes, before he could stitch them together.

The Serbain lost his balance and slipped when Berdych was sitting pretty on a break point in the first game. The tiny blip cost Djokovic the game and left a bruised spot on his keen.

However, that was as far as Berdych could go for Djokovic bounced back claiming the set with an impressive 6-3 margin. The man not only equalised with a break in the 6th but went further to break his opponent in the 9th.

Unfortunately, the second set was too keenly contested for Djokovic’s liking. None of the two players managed to capitalise on break points and as a results a tie-breaker was imposed when the scores were levelled 6-6.
And tie-breakers, be it in tennis or any other sport, are a battle of nerves and that’s precisely where Djokovic scores above the rest. His calm composition overcame Berdych’s aggressive approach and he won the tie-breaker 7-3 and the set 7-6.

But, like always, the Serbain didn’t shy away from praising his opponent. “He has a good timing and his angle is superb. He is a very good player, it was a tough win today,” said the World No. 1 who hasn’t lost a single set in the tournament so far.

Spaniards Feliciano, Marc win doubles crown

Earlier Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez ousted German-Austrian pair of Philipp Petzschner and Alexander Peya in straight sets to win the doubles championship. The two pocketed $64,420 along with their maiden ATP World Tour team title.

The third-seed Spaniards overpowered their rivals 6-4, 6-3 in the 66 minutes in a match that preceded the more popular singles semi-finals.

“It's my third title, but first with Feli. I love playing in Doha,” said Marc Lopez. “Every year I play well here. I will be back for sure.”
Feliciano on his part highlighted the positives of their pairing. “It was our first time playing together in a while, but today in the final we played some of our best tennis. Yesterday, we played well against Jamie (Murray) and Bruno (Soares) but we really played our best today.”

The match witnessed some spectacular shots, a few taking the aerial route, the rest more grounded, but all-in-all it generated enough excitement and crowds for the upcoming key clashes of the evening.